And here's energy...XLE:

Thanks Catch.
Here's update for AGG...

@Charles Aside from actions in the equity areas......
The below list are etf's we monitor, in particular; among others.
Friday close was interesting, in bondland, IMHO:
(these are Friday only numbers)
IEF +0.64%
LQD +0.63%
TIP +0.58%
LTPZ + 1.3%
IWM +0.15%
IYR -0.08%
HYG +0.10%
VWO +0.65%
ITOT +0.08%
IBB -1.08%
Take care,
Catch

Interesting day for couple issues, like SHLD.
Oil continues to recover.
Lighter volume, maybe cause of holiday weekend.
Actually, nice to have a week without volatility...

@Old_Skeet: I always use Yahoo Finance for mutual fund quotes. It might have changed ,but closing NAV's are sent to First Data in Omaha by the fund companies and released to the public at 4:45 PM CST, however; there are occasions when NAV's aren't released till later. The problem with M* quotes is internal
Regards,
Ted
SGGDX: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=SGGDX&ql=1
FAAFX: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=FAAFX&ql=1

Is this on their website or via the app? I don't use M* but my other apps usually settle about 1.5-3 hours after the close depending on how busy a day it was. Yours seems like something might be wrong at M*.

Is anybody that uses Moringstar's Portfolio System having a concern with timely price updating of their mutual funds after market close?
It use to be that I'd have relative good price updaing by 6:30 PM EST. During the past couple of months it seems the price updating is taking longer and longer ... and, as I write this, one of my securities SGGDX has not yet updated with Friday's closing price ... and, today is Saturday, 7:50 AM EST.

FAIRX ytd -1.68% last month +8.56%
Maybe it is time to sell.
Holdings top 2: AIG +6.34%, BAC +11.95%
The rest... with exception of St Joe, all are down double digit ytd.

Interesting discussion comparing JOE and the Ackman-chaired HHC from a couple of years ago. You can see the difference in the two stocks since.
http://www.tilsonfunds.com/pdf/A Tale of Two Stocks-Kiplinger's-8-11.pdf

The beginning of the end? That's what it looks like to me.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/07/us-sears-holdings-reit-idUSKBN0IR13B20141107
Up to 300 stores to be sold. If they want to make it an online presence, they still have to change the whole model of what Sears is.

Sears is selling the stores to the REIT and leasing them back. So, effectively, Sears is the tenant of the REIT in those cases. It's sort of what Ackman wanted Target to do several years ago, but Target wasn't having it.
If Sears does this REIT, "While the REIT move would raise money, it also would bring additional expenses. McGinley estimates that the company would pay about $150 million in mall rents if it goes through with the plan. It’s one additional burden on a company that’s burning over $1.5 billion in free cash flow,” he said. “This places Sears as a retailer in a more precarious predicament.”"
They've sold a number of the best locations already, including the most profitable in the chain to General Growth. (http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303643304579109023202738550)
"Investors have speculated ever since that part of the attraction for Mr. Lampert was the underlying value of Sears's real estate. Yet, only a quarter of Sears mall stores are in the best centers, with the rest in average and even subpar malls, according to Green Street Advisors, a real estate research firm."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-07/sears-considers-sale-and-leaseback-deal-to-strengthen-finances.html
"Not all of Sears’s space is in prime locations, though. About 27 percent of the company’s square footage lies in what CoStar Portfolio Strategy calls “weak local trade area demographics.” That means households in the surrounding neighborhood aren’t big spenders.
An additional 23 percent of Sears’s space is in “questionable” locations, with somewhat better buying power, according to Suzanne Mulvee, CoStar’s director of research in Boston."
If they are leasing back the stores, it's effectively providing a liquidity boost in the near-term. Why are they not just getting rid of this valuable real estate outright? You have this case that Simon Properties has X amount of space and Sears also has a huge amount of retail space, but that doesn't mean that the quality of the real estate is at all similar.
There's value there, but I think the relative silence in terms of people interested in buying this space from Sears over the years speaks volumes as to the value of it.
There's a ton of net lease REITs in existence. No one wanted to take this on? I do think it will be interesting to see the reaction to the Sears REIT from the standpoint of showing what the market thinks of the value. If some other REIT took this on, that's one thing, but this will be a purely Sears REIT and will be judged as such when it starts trading.
Meanwhile, you effectively play a game of Jenga with the core business, taking out parts and pieces and weakening what's left of the core. All of this discussion about Sears creating a member-centric retail operation is incredibly unrealistic from the standpoint of, you have a CEO who has neglected the retail operations for years and suddenly he goes, "Lets be Costco, only without the membership fees or value proposition." I've said previously, either Lampert is not being honest (this was never about a turnaround of the retail, and Berkowitz has said as much in an interview) or he really does think a turnaround of the business is possible and in that case, I think that's almost laughable.
Meanwhile, he's dragged out his time wrecking value at Sears to what, almost a decade now? He has a legacy as a skilled and intelligent investor. He's been a complete disaster as a retailer and as an investor, he's attempted to turn Sears - still a very large company - into his own personal financial Frankenstein experiment. Take a classic American brand and add the worst aspects of financial engineering, take nearly a decade and wind up with enormous losses and a more irrelevant brand than ever. Just take the thing private already.

We should also add here that Eddie Lampert has his own hedge fund. ESL Investments. SHLD is over 46% of the funds portfolio.
http://www.insidermonkey.com/hedge-fund/esl+investments/14

How much in the way of redemptions has Lampert seen due to Sears? Probably lots.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/investors-pull-back-from-lamperts-fund-2/?_r=0

FYI: (Click On Article Title At Top Of Google Search)
After a huge 2013, shares of small companies come back to earth, and so have mutual funds that specialize in them. How Buffalo Small Cap and Invesco Small Cap Growth have fared.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&site=&source=hp&q=small+cap+stocks+barron's&oq=small+cap+stocks+barron's&gs_l=hp.3...1283.13667.0.14024.25.25.0.0.0.0.154.1669.23j2.25.0.ehm_nts...0...1.1.58.hp..1.24.1606.4_UOe4S1B-c

FYI: Frost Total Return Bond fund’s manager, former Navy cryptologist Jeffery Elswick, discusses strategy and choices with Barron’s.
Regards,
Ted
http://online.barrons.com/articles/cracking-the-code-of-fixed-income-investing-1415436200#printMode
M* Snapshot Of FATRX: http://quotes.morningstar.com/fund/f?t=FATRX&region=usa&culture=en-US
Lipper Snapshot Of FATRX: http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/fatrx
FATRX Is Ranked #1 In The (STB) Fund Category By U. S. News & World Report:
http://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/short-term-bond/frost-total-return-bond-fund/fatrx

FAAFX up 6.6% today.

c

Don't see other winners sufficient to propel the fund to a 6.58%, unless the weighting in SHLD is a lot higher than the stated 8.48%
My guess is that the weighting in SHLD could be much higher than stated.

++++++++++++++
Berkowitz was buying Sears over the last couple of weeks and that is probably not reflected - that may have contributed.
++++++++++++++++++++++
I did a rough calculation:
14,212,673 : number of Sears shares in FAIRX
880,900 : number of Sears shares in FAAFX
15,093,573 : total Sears shares FAIRX and FAAFX combined
992,400 : new Sears shares purchased in October (added up all the purchases in Scott's post, subtracted the shares sold)
He increased his Sears position by 6.58% total shares. We don't know how they were distributed into FAIRX vs. FAAFX vs. any other location. I believe he also has a hedge fund.

Sorry they Both stink! 1.7% for Harvard and 3.3% for Yale, and you want me to tell you which University has the best endowment fund investors ? Even the other Universities got at least Double those returns. Maybe they could call Bogle, or my wife, either would double their returns...

7.1; 6.8; 5.0; 5.1; 4.9. Those are the distribution %ages Yale took from its endowment between FY2009 and FY2013. While still returning 3.3 total%.
But hey, if you or your wife could do better, Yale is hiring.

@Maurice.

Maybe it is time to sell.

What other money managers do you think will make more money for retail investors than Bruce Berkowitz, over say 3-5 year period?
I'm almost afraid to ask... =).

FAAFX up 6.6% today.

c

@Charles, I wonder if the FAAFX portfolio holdings or weightings have changed?
I sketched out the math and can't see how it went up 6.58% today.
Should have gone up 2.63% just as a result of Sears alone....and I can see an increase of to a total of roughly 3% for FAAFX, as CHK, LE, and HOFD all had nice gains.
Don't see other winners sufficient to propel the fund to a 6.58%, unless the weighting in SHLD is a lot higher than the stated 8.48%
My guess is that the weighting in SHLD could be much higher than stated.
Any ideas?

Berkowitz was buying Sears over the last couple of weeks and that is probably not reflected - that may have contributed.

FAAFX up 6.6% today.

c

@Charles, I wonder if the FAAFX portfolio holdings or weightings have changed?
I sketched out the math and can't see how it went up 6.58% today.
Should have gone up 2.63% just as a result of Sears alone....and I can see an increase of to a total of roughly 3% for FAAFX, as CHK, LE, and HOFD all had nice gains.
Don't see other winners sufficient to propel the fund to a 6.58%, unless the weighting in SHLD is a lot higher than the stated 8.48%
My guess is that the weighting in SHLD could be much higher than stated.
Any ideas?

You might have done better with pumpkin futures. :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_vs._Patty_and_Selma
"Homer vs. Patty and Selma" is the 17th episode of The Simpsons' sixth season. This episode was originally broadcast on February 26, 1995. Homer attempts to earn some money through investing, and decides to invest in Halloween pumpkins."
Homer: "This year I invested in pumpkins. They've been going up the whole month of October and I got a feeling they're going to peak right around January. Then bang! That's when I'll cash in"

Hey there Hank- My condolences on "Stuck here in a airport (4-5 hr delay) so feeling kinda "crusty"."
Been there & done that. Totally crummy! Go to the bar, have a drink or two. Expensive at airports, but what the hell...

Hi OJ - Stuck here in a airport (4-5 hr delay) so feeling kinda "crusty". Post some more funny stuff for me to read will ya please?
As you allude, there's a universe of investing cliches - many seemingly opposed. I think that's why it's important to develop a approach that's comfortable for the individual. And yes - I distinctly recall your adding some on the 9.9% downdraft.

Hi Tony,
Actually, not only can you but it's much easier than trying to own actual physical bullion. You can do that in an IRA but it's very complicated and there are easier ways to get precious metals into your IRA - both bullion and miners.
Either of these would be trading vehicles. For longer term holding I'd go with CEF for
bullion as it's 55/45 gold/silver . . . and they really have it on hand. If I was going to play this sucker, I'd hit junior silver miners (like rono is doing currently, TYVM!). That's where the serious leverage occurs.
peace,
rono